1. Field
The following description relates to atrial fibrillation (AF) prediction, such as, for example, technology to generate an AF prediction model and predicting AF based on information about a T wave.
2. Description of Related Art
Arrhythmia is a state in which a beat is too slow, too fast, or irregular. Arrhythmia occurs due to an abnormal rate of muscle contractions in the heart. AF is a symptom of arrhythmia. AF represents a state in which an atrium of a heart does not beat at a normal rhythm. AF may cause some parts of the atrium to experience minute trembles at an irregular rate such that fast and irregular heartbeats occur as a result.
AF may itself cause symptoms such as dyspnea, chest pain, and the like. As the occurrence of AF increases, there is a possibility that arrhythmia will occur that is of greater seriousness and danger. For example, AF may eventually hamper the effective pumping of blood out of the heart. As such, AF patients have a stroke risk that five times greater than a stroke risk of those without AF. In addition, AF patients have death rate that is two times greater than a death rate of those without AF
Further, AF is an arrhythmia symptom that is relatively commonly diagnosed among patients suffering from arrhythmia. AF is the most common of the arrhythmia symptoms, typically resulting in 33% of all arrhythmia-related inpatient hospital stays. Accordingly, a technique to accurately predict the generation of AF at an early stage is desired by those practicing in the medical field.
If a sudden generation of AF causes a heartbeat to increase to a rate that is too fast, blood is not able to be filled in the heart within a sufficient time period. As a result, cardiac output, which is a total amount of blood pumped out of a heart upon contraction of the heart, is sharply reduced. Since a contraction of an atrium of a normal heart occupies about 30% of cardiac output, the heart rate continues to increase to fill the insufficient cardiac output.
Accordingly, the exceedingly fast beating of the heart causes an overload, which results in a deterioration in heart function to the point that that heart begins to experience structural changes. This may lead to heart failure or cause a heart that is already in a state of failure to worsen in condition. Moreover, if the heart fails contract normally as a result of AF, blood congestion may occur in the heart, thereby increasing a risk of blood coagulation in the heart.
As a result, blood clots formed in the heart move out through arteries, thereby serving to block blood vessels in the brain or other parts of the body. Accordingly, AF patients have a very high risk of stroke or thromboembolism.
Because AF is the most common of complications that occurs after operations such as thoracic surgery, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and the like, accurate prediction of AF in patients that will have or have had operations is very useful in the medical field. Accurate prediction of AF increases a possibility that various cardiac pacing methods can be used to prevent AF, reduce hospital costs, and minimize patient pain.
For example, if an AF risk assessment is performed to accurately estimate a risk of post-operational AF generation in a patient scheduled to have an operation, patients having a high risk of post-operational AF generation can be prescribed appropriate antidysrhythmic treatments, such as drugs, electrical pacing, and the like, to prevent occurrence of AF at an early stage. In addition, patients having a low risk of post-operational AF generation can be freed from being subject to certain protective and preventative care.